NationStates Jolt Archive

I got an issue about hazing in boot camp for the military. One option was like, "We the military recruits should be allowed to sleep till noon and generally be overly lazy", another was like "We the drill sergeants have to haze to have good soldiers instead of maggots in our army", one was like "We don't need to train our military, just hand them a gun and put them on the front lines, all they learn in basic training is how to polish boots and salute fifty ways anyway", and the fourth was like "we should conscript boys at seven into the military so that everyone is military and our soldiers are immune to propaganda like they did in ancient Sparta".

But the answer I wanted wasn't there. This is my problem with this and many NationStates issues.

I wanted something to the effect of "Why don't we eliminate the polishing boots and lots of saluting and dancing with our weapons from our basic training and instead just train them in use of firearms, grenades, explosives, etc.? This takes away the hazing since the instrument of it is gone but prevents our soldiers from being slaughtered in battle, since now they are exceptionally skilled with their weapons."

That was just an example, there are many more issues that need extra options. Anyone else have the problem where the game won't let them do what they want?

No issue can ever have all the answers you want. You can either pick the "least bad" option or dismiss the issue. You could perhaps write another issue around the answer you want and submit it once your population exceeds 500,000.

This is what Sirocco, the Issues guru, wrote when he was advising people how to write an issue:

... try to aim for an issue which, when a recipient decides on it, leaves a lingering feeling that the wrong one has been made ...

NS often pokes fun at politics, and issues are a perfect place to do it. Issue writers are equal-opportunity insulters: libertarians, liberals, anarchists, dictators, socialists, democracies, republics, theists, deists, atheists -- everybody has their day in the pillory!

So if the answer you want isn't there, it's because the issue-writer planned it that way.